"We know we're not Apple," Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's top communications executive, said in an interview yesterday. "We would love to have control all along the stack, as Apple does. But that's not the business we're in."

Microsoft's communications strategy, specifically the way it reveals information about Windows to a broad audience -- developers, PC makers, enterprise customers, consumers, the press and analysts -- has been criticized by several of the latter. Windows 8 suffered because of Microsoft's penchant for withholding information, those analysts have contended.

Developers were not provided enough information and tools to craft top-quality apps for the October 2012 launch, OEMs were caught short of touch-enabled devices, and enterprises remain confused about why they should adopt the new OS, the arguments go.

Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy, has put it most succinctly when he claimed that Microsoft, seeing the success of Apple's habit of divulging nothing until a product announcement, copied the strategy. "Microsoft doesn't make a good Apple," Moorhead said in an interview Monday.

Shaw wasn't having any of that. "It's an easy shorthand for people to use, but it's not accurate," said Shaw of the Apple comparison. "We choose our strategy on the needs that we have. There are times when we will be more conservative and times when we will be more open."

Analysts, some who have requested anonymity for fear of risking their access to Microsoft, have been the most vocal about the relative paucity of information disclosed by the Redmond, Wash. developer, and have compared that strategy to what they saw as a more open communications game plan prior to Windows 7, which shipped in the fall of 2009.

The more secretive approach has been credited to Stephen Sinofsky, who until his ouster last year led the Windows division during development of Windows 7 and the follow-on, Windows 8. Sinofsky was known for keeping things under wraps when he led Office development for several editions, closing out his time on that team with Office 2007.

Shaw acknowledged that Microsoft's approach to doling out information to the media, analysts, developers and OEMs is different today. "Yes, it has changed, because the world we're living in has changed," said Shaw. "If you look at Windows 7 and then look at Windows 8, there were a whole bunch of things with Windows 8 that we wanted to keep more confidential than public. Look at the decision to build Windows 8 on ARM. That was held very closely.

"But I think that's a hard comparison to make," Shaw continued, speaking of the contrast between Windows 8 secrets and pre-Windows 7 openness. "Windows 8 represented a significant platform shift, with touch, Windows available on ARM as well as Intel, a new app model and a new store, and a new set of hardware from us."

In many cases, Microsoft has taken to parceling out information in small bits, a drip-drip-drip strategy that, to outsiders at least, seems to serve little purpose. The best illustration was when the company announced last week that it would release a public preview of Windows 8.1 at its BUILD conference in late June, but said it would provide other information, including pricing, "in a few weeks." Just seven days later, however, Tami Reller, CFO of the Windows division, said that update would be free.

When asked why Microsoft didn't simply give customers both pieces at the same time, Shaw did not directly answer. Instead, he said, "There are many options, and this was the one that we chose. We thought that it was the best way to get the information out."